[Training as an institutional function: institutional transformation experience by the Paraná Sanitary Company].

The experience of the Companhia de Saneamento do Paraná (SANEPAR) in recent years show that it is possible for a public service enterprise to operate on the entrepreneurial lines of a private business. For it to do this, it must start out with an awareness of entrepreneurial values and by creating an atmosphere that is congenial at the same time to the service mentality, motivation, the realization of individual potential, and efficiency. When the entrepreneurial values to be espoused have been defined and translated into concrete and measurable targets, incentives must be provided. In consequence of measures of this kind, SANEPAR has undergone a distinct institutional transformation whose concrete results are visible and measureable. A central feature of this transformation has been the broad participation and consequent involvement of the employees in the fate of the organization. Because of this involvement and the importance given to human resources, it became necessary to formulate and carry out an extensive personnel development program, in which training has come to the forefront as a means for stimulating and accelerating the realization of human potential. The measures taken have proved highly valid and have indelibly stamped the organization with the values and mentality of service. The assimilation of entrepreneurial values and the motivation and training of the employees has brought about real conditions for the growth and development of the entire organization.